I work in a pottery shop, and one of the things we tell customers is that it's best if they put light-colored glazes down first on their pottery, and do darker-colored details on top. You CAN do it the other way around, but it's a little harder because if you don't put enough of the lighter color, the dark background will show through. This is especially true with pinks and yellows, since they seem to be more translucent and don't cover dark colors well.

I try to explain all this as simply as possible, showing examples of actual fired pottery, so they get the idea. However, I still end up with people putting down a dark color as the background and then wanting to know what color to put on top of it. *headsmack* I used to just assume they weren't paying attention to my instructions and needed a bat 'round the earholes, but now I've decided that the real problem is this: Non-artistic people don't necessarily know the difference between light colors and dark colors.

I have arrived at this conclusion after three years of working in the shop and getting a feel for how customers think, and observing the differences between the ways artistic and non-artistic people approach their project. Of course, people who have done little or no art need the most help, which is fine with me. I enjoy it when someone comes in and says, "I'm not artistic. I have no talent at all, but my grandkids wanted me to come here." Then I show them samples and pictures, explain how it's done, and take them step-by-step painting something simple, and we make it easy with stencils and stamps that they can use, and in the end they're pretty amazed that they created this lovely plate that they can actually use. People who haven't done art since they were kids often come back because they learn that art isn't about creating a masterpiece, it's about learning a new skill, using your imagination, doing your own thing, and especially, having fun while doing it.

Which brings me back to the subject of color. It never occurred to me, before working with people this way, that they might not understand the concept of light vs. dark. It seems like a ridiculous notion, but those of us who are naturally artistic might take things for granted that others do not even notice. Our eyes are attuned to things like subtle shadings of color, and the differences between light and dark, but people who have seldom or never done art need to be trained how to see the world in this manner. Hence, it isn't enough for me to say "Use light colors first and then dark," I have to give examples of each so they can see the difference.

Value is an even more complex thing. Someone might want to put a dark green hand print on a dark blue background, and I have to explain that, even though these are different colors, they are very close to each other in intensity, and the child's hand print probably won't show up too well.

Anyway, I just thought this was an interesting thing to consider, and was wondering if anyone else had observed the same phenomenon. I'm sure if we were to ask people if they could tell dark colors from light ones, they would say yes, but when it comes to doing actual art, where you must be able to differentiate between many different colors, tones, and values, it might be a very different thing for someone who has never done art.